Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is definitely the most inventive approach to a video game starring your friendly neighborhood wall crawler that we can recall. In Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions, you have the opportunity to explore four unique universes as four different versions of Spider-Man, each featuring authentic and unique art styles, from the classic pen-and-ink-styled Amazing Spider-Man to the moody, 1930s cinema-influenced Noir, gliding maneuvers in 2099, and black-suited tendril attacks in Ultimate. This time around you mission is to contain the magical energy of the Tablet of Order and Chaos, which has been shattered and sent hurtling across parallel universes, and battle the largest array of villains ever seen in a Spider-Man game in a quest to restore the fabric of reality.

Anyone who has played a Spider-Man game in the past few years will actually be pleasantly surprised by the style of gameplay that they will see in this game. The greatest thing about this game is how Beenox managed to make each of the versions of Spider-Man feel unique, each has his own personality, strengths and weaknesses, and requires the player to apply those skills into a unique gameplay style for each version of the webslinger. The web-slinging, aerial Amazing Spider-Man delivers sweeping blows and powerful kicks in a world that pays tribute to the classic era of our legendary Super Hero, while the mysterious and stealthy Spider-Man Noir prefers to lurk in the shadows of a 1930s-influenced cinematic environment before unleashing his perilous strength. A little known fact is that not all Spider-Man’s are alternate versions of Peter Parker, Miguel O’Hara, a brilliant geneticist who while attempting to recreate the abilities of the original Spider-Man in other people suffered a related accident that caused half his DNA to be re-written with a spider’s genetic code and thus became Spider-Man 2099.

Yep, that's Scorpion folks after using the fragment

From a gameplay perspective, the controls are simple yet effective. Each Spider-Man is equipped with special skills that allow players to be most effective in their environment. Out of all the Spider-Man’s my favorite was Spider-Man Noir because I love the stealthy gameplay style that you HAVE to take on in order to be effective with him. The reason that I say that because of all the webslingers he is probably the weakest from a hand to hand combat standpoint. In knowing this if you try to go toe to toe with your enemies then you will have a long day. On the opposite side of the spectrum are Spider-Man 2099 and Ultimate Spider-Man who are very powerful and only know one way to get the job done and that is to get up close and personal and do all sorts of damage.

The game also adds another interesting perspective never before seen in a Spider-Man game and that is that the game switches to a first-person perspective at certain points during key battles a la God Of War 3. This really adds a different layer to the gameplay and is usually the crowning jewel on what are some epic boss battles. The sheer number of foes in this game is ridiculous; Kraven The Hunter, Hammerhead (never before seen in the Marvel Universe), Deadpool, Doc Oct, Carnage, Goblin and more.

He Never Saw Spidey Coming

There actually isn’t a whole lot not to like about Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions; it is exactly what you expect it to be. There are some times where you end up with some weird camera angles which can make getting oriented a bit difficult. I also didn’t like how in a lot of the boss battles its not necessarily obvious what you need to do to beat them, the developers definitely expect you to understand each Spidey’s play style and figure it out which will cause you to spend a little more time on some of the battles than you should.

The final call on Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions is that it’s one of the most solid Spidey titles to date. There isn’t really anything about this game that will knock you over, but it never really falls flat either. The game is just solid all the way around and for that we give Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions 8 out of 10, if they stay on this track then we are excited to see where they can take this.

I am the Co-Ceo of DLT Digital Media. We are a company that is focused on developing new and innovative web properties in addition to developing WordPress based web sites for others. But before I was all that, I was a gamer.